


Acquisition

by Khi0n3



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Action, F/M, Smut, human x Turian, sci fi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-26
Updated: 2015-03-26
Packaged: 2018-03-19 19:22:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3621378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khi0n3/pseuds/Khi0n3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Purely original work. Occurs just prior to Shepard being revived in Mass Effect 2. </p>
<p>Zoe Aberforth has been working for a Cerberus project for the past three years, but is only just starting to realize the ethical and moral bankruptcy of the pro-human group and Project Nessus. Seeking the aid of her estranged twin sister and a team of colourful aliens, she plans to take down the project.<br/>When the plan doesn't go exactly as planned, Zoe finds herself relying on, and falling in love with the last person in the galaxy she would have ever expected. </p>
<p>Xia Aberforth is a no nonsense Alliance soldier and a powerful biotic. It would be suicide to cross her. Zia blames Cerberus for the death of her mother, and refuses to speak with her twin sister after she takes up a post on their lucrative Project Nessus. But when her sister shows up on her doorstep with a plan to take down the project, and maybe Cerberus, she can't say no.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Acquisition

-not complete// will update shortly-

Zoe glanced down at the readings on her omnitool. Vitals were well within parameters, recovering well from the previous round of injections without any major concerns. Exactly how Dr. Chase West had predicted. He would be pleased to see these findings. Quietly, she uploaded the data to Dr. West’s personal server without making eye contact with her patient. Turning her back to the patient, she made her way for the exit. In and out. Quickly and quietly. Like always. Just as she started to punch in her security access code into the panel next to the door she heard a raspy voice behind her.

            “Hey, Nurse! Would it kill you to bring me some water next time you’re by? I’m parched.” Zoe turned and looked at her patient, confused. “Actually, a good stiff drink wouldn’t go amiss either, but I’m sure that wont be easy to smuggle in here.” The turian patient gave her a small grin. Despite the fact that he’d been confined to this room with it’s narrow gurney with thin, scratchy sheets as a bed for the better part of the last four years, he seemed to be in pretty good spirits. She remembered reading in his file that he had once been a respected general of the turian military. His body bore numerous scars, though whether they were a result of his years of service or his time here, she couldn’t say. During his time at the facility his muscles had atrophied considerably, however he was still a formidable sight and looked completely capable of knocking out anyone he please. His face, more gaunt than most turians, still bore the distinct facial tattoos of his people adding splashes of blue and black to his grey cartilage mask.

            Maintaining her no eye contact with the patient in front of her, she gave a curt nod, then turned back to the control panel and continued to punch in her access code.

            Three years prior she had been recruited by Cerberus to be a part of a team dedicated to the understanding of turian physiology and the development of anti-toxins for turians. Cerberus had specifically sought her participation in the project due to her extensive research with turians and her countless years working in a hospital in turian space. Many had pointed out it seemed odd that Cerberus was focusing it’s research in this lab on assisting turians since Cerberus was an exclusively human group. There had been times where Zoe had questioned the true purpose of the research at this facility, but ultimately her 6 digit credit annual salary kept her from questioning to far. She’d lost a lot of friends after accepting her position at this research facility, people claiming that Cerberus couldn’t be trusted and that no amount of money should prevent her from doing what was ethical, but she blindly trudged forward with the job. At the end of the day no one was getting hurt and the subjects in the facility were there voluntarily, according to the official records. Regardless of what she said, she’d lost her best friend when she had decided to take up the position. They hadn’t spoken in three years.

            With a sigh, she moved on to the next room, a younger turian who had brought to the station at a very young age and lacked his facial tattoos as a result. She made a quick note that this patient had fared as well with his round of treatments and moved on.

            Project Nessus was an elaborate set up on a remote station in the Arrae system, although it was much smaller than most Cerberus operations. On a typical day, there were three nurses working on the floor. Two of them would take four of the ten turian patients at the facility into their care, and the third would take the final two as well as the role of the nurse in charge.  With a grand total of twelve nurses that worked at the facility, Zoe was always busy. She got one week of shore leave every six weeks, and two days off a week where she stayed on the station. The station employed many other individuals, including a number of scientist and doctors who facilitated the treatments for the turian patients and a scant but well armed security unit. There were less than 200 personnel on the station at any given time.

The whole operation was run under Dr. Chase West, a brilliant young scientist who’d devoted his life to the understanding of xenobiology, and the advancement of humanity. After losing his father at a young age to military service in the First Contact War, he focused himself on the alien species of the Verge. He devoted 12 years of his life to his study and by the time he was 20, he had published several papers on xenobiology. At 25 Cerberus had scooped him up providing him with limitless resources at his disposal. By 27 years old he had become the leading expert among human scientists on turian physiology.

Zoe had never really known how Dr. Chase West found her. One day she’d been tending to the wounds of turian soliders on Palaven, the turian homeworld, and the next she was having dinner at the finest restaurant on the Citadel, being offered to position of a lifetime. When ever she asked him, he would brush the topic off by saying that he “just knew” the moment he saw her that she was right for Project Nessus.

Over time it had ceased to matter to Zoe why she’d been brought on. Now three years later she had stopped worrying about the specifics of why she was here and just continued on with her tasks. Never engaging the patients. Never asking questions. Just punching in the data and moving on.

Until today that is.

 

... tbc


End file.
